Thursday, January 31, 2008

Blue Shield of California Internet Marketing Seminar

A few months ago I was contacted about doing a Webinar for Blue Shield of California's agents. I immediate saw the opportunity to include a few other South Florida online marketing experts. John Lawlor of Webinar Academy took over the reigns since he was going to produce the event. Karen Talavera of Syncronicity Marketing also joined the group to speak about email marketing.

The goal was a free, quick education on the benefits ad channels of Online Marketing. It is available online by clicking here: Internet Marketing Seminar.

Please contact Joe Laratro if you are interested in setting something up like this for a large group.

Monday, January 28, 2008

SEO 101 Training in New York

Two weeks ago I taught 4 basic SEO classes in NY. Two were in the Time Square area and two search engine optimization classes were in the Wall Street area. It is very interesting to see the different types of companies that attend these events.

The first day included a guy that suffers from "Google Paranoia". This is a disease that some of my colleagues also suffer from. It's symptoms include delusions of grandeur about how important a Web site's data is to Google, that Google will use what they learn about a Web site against them, and a complete distrust of Google. I think Google paranoia is silly unless you are Ebay or Amazon. In any case, a member of the audience sparked a debate about it.

The second day included an owner of a hair salon. I was really impressed with this. Hair dressers are realizing the value of local search marketing. He had a Web site that ranked well for months but got stale and lost its positions. Attending the class should have given him the knowledge to develop a winning strategy.

I tend to be teaching more and more SEO classes these days. The best part about it is how unique each session can be based on the attendee's questions.

New Star Trek Teaser and Mini Site

Paramount has put the new Star Trek Movie's trailer online. I was fairly impressed to see links for hd, ipod, and iphone as download options.

Check it out online here: http://www.paramount.com/startrek/

And yes... I am a Trekky

Monday, January 14, 2008

Search Engine Optimization Training in Dallas

Last weekend I went out to Dallas, TX to speak at the yearly All My Sons Moving Convention. It was a great event filled with motivational and educational speakers. I did a presentation on Local Search Engine Optimization and building out content for the long tail. If you are interested in a copy, drop me an email.

Ormando Gomez gave an inspirational speech about client care and handling that applies to any business. The moving industry has been suffering since the decline in the Real Estate market. Two years ago there was a waiting list for movers. Today every lead is precious. Moving is a stressful event for anyone. Ormando was teaching the attendees the little things that make a difference. Some of the take aways were: better initial call handling, good follow up, and caring (and conveying that emotion) about the prospects move.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Do We, Online Marketers, Welcome 2008?

I wrote an article about the struggling Real Estate Market and how it was time to turn to online marketing for the answer a few months ago. At the time, the real estate market could have been replaced with almost any industry and the sentiment held true.

Now the big question is could a recession in 2008 cause a drop in online spending? I would normally get on my soap box and proclaim to the world that if your business is in a slump, try marketing online, try search engine optimization, test the waters with PPC advertising or even a Blog. While I still want to be bullish on my industry, the fact of the matter is that a real recession could also affect marketing budgets. The reins may be pulled in and business in general may down size and down scale through the hard times.

Could online marketing help prevent a full blown recession? That is a complicated question that Alan Greenspan would probably love to debate. We can not control the cost of gasoline... but what if we could improve our (USA) products? What if companies could get more lean, efficient and profitable? Those are changes that could start strengthing the US dollar worldwide. Internet marketing is certainly a channel for companies to maximize their ad spends.

I welcome 2008. This could be another amazing year for the SEO / SEM industry. Even if there is a pull back, good marketers will still be in high demand. 2008 will be a year to partner with our clients and make sure that their online marketing campaigns maximize every dollar they spend.

Happy New Year!